11 more colleges included in second round of admission

BANGALORE: Here is some good news for engineering seat aspirants in Karnataka. Eleven new engineering colleges have been included in the casual vacancy round of the seat selection process for admission.

Of the 11, six private colleges, including one women’s technical college, are located in and around Bangalore. The second round will offer nearly 240 seats per college, which amounts to about 2,500 seats across different streams of engineering.

The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) granted approval for these colleges this month.

Sources in the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) told The Hindu that two more colleges might be added to this list within a few weeks. The casual vacancy round for the physically challenged and those applying under sports and NCC category will start on Thursday.

Seats in various reserved categories will be allotted from August 8 to 27. General merit seat selection procedure is scheduled to be held from August 27 to September 18. Although students generally prefer established and old colleges with a verifiable track record and accreditation status, the fact that a majority of these colleges are located in Bangalore will be of interest to many. “Those who could not secure admission in the first round can now choose seats in this round. All the colleges have been cleared by the AICTE and students may come forward to seek admission,” Special Officer KEA Syed Jamal told The Hindu.

Unlike previous years there has been no confusion this year regarding de-affiliation of colleges by the Visvevaraya Technological University or the AICTE. Seats in 141 colleges in Karnataka were allotted in the first round of the seat selection in July. Sai Vidya Institute of Technology, Amrutha Institute of Engineering, Brindavan College of Engineering, East Point College of Engineering (women’s college), R.R. Institute of Technology and Smt. Chenamma Deve Gowda College of Engineering are the colleges that will come up in Bangalore district. Private colleges have been sanctioned in Belgaum and Moodabidri.

Last year over 2,000 seats were surrendered to private colleges after the seat selection process.

This time around all government colleges and government quota seats were streamlined and allotted in the first round. It is unlikely that there will be a huge shuffle in seats, except for those in new colleges, Mr. Jamal told The Hindu.